16 THE BATTALION.
ard; in conversation, on the contrary, unless he bean out and
out hypocrite, a man is himself. “ Out of the fullness of his
heart his mouth speaks.” Then, there is another side to it.
I have no hesitation in saying, that from conversation, and
not books, a man obtains nine tenths of his knowledge and
much of the encouragement which leads him to search for the
remaining tenth in the treasury of books and stored learning.
Book knowledge is, of course, the most reliable, but it is not
enough. You remember Bacon’s oft-quoted remark: “Read
ing makes the full man, writing the exact man, conversation
the ready man.” It is this impression readiness of the good
conversationalist which is the flavor and spice, so to speak
of imparted knowledge. The wise Socrates made use of it
in imparting his doctrines. The “ salons ” or conversation
al assemblies under the auspices of the learned and witty
ladies of Paris during Lewis XIY’s reign were the headquar
ters of wisdom. The hospitable Holland house of London in
the early days of Victoria’s reign, the School of Concord
Philosophy which assembled about Ralph Waldo Emerson,
our elegant anti-bellum Southern homes, which have never
been surpassed in the cultivation of sprightly conversation of
the most elevated character. These and many more can be
adduced as instances of the educating and refining influence
of cultured social intercourse.
But this subject of conversation has too a moral and re
ligious side. The Bible is hilled with precepts as to the
abuse of speech and the power of the tongue for good and
evil. The translators of our bible use the word conversation
in a different sense from present usage. The word meant in
King Jame’s day the sum of social relationships. Hence,
when St. Paul says “ Our conversation is in Heaven ” he
means our social being as Christians, our citizenship. “ To
order one’s conversation aright” means to arrange one’s
social life justly. The abuse of conversation; what a held
opens up to our serious study with the mere mention of it;
God has given us the physicial adaptation and the inventive